The “Day of the Fans” is both the opening of the Bundesliga season and a thank-you for the supporters of SV Werder Bremen. Due to Corona, a rethink was necessary and a digital alternative was created. Therefore, in 2020 at the WOW – the Werder Opening Weekend – there was a hybrid event instead of a live atmosphere. Via stream, fans at home were directly and emotionally involved in the varied WOW programme and were motivated for the new season.
Season opening on stream – is that possible? Is it possible to mobilise such an emotional target group as football fans digitally? SV Werder Bremen, a survivor, shows how. The football club enthused its supporters with a three-day hybrid event – for the start of the 2020 Bundesliga season in due Corona distance and via livestream. At WOW, the Werder Opening Weekend, all the football and fun action from the wohninvest Weserstadion was broadcast online to the home.
Exciting digital content met atmospheric stadium staging. Interviews and chats with the Werder team and club management, test match victories against FC Groningen and St. Pauli, the special programme “Zeigler’s wonderful world of Werder” by cult football presenter and Werder stadium announcer Arnd Zeigler, player presentations, quizzes and e-sports competitions in which fans could compete with the professionals – full entertainment at the start of the season in a green and white setting. Including music performances by DJ Moritz Boe & Calle Neu, as well as the living room live concert with LENNA and Grillmaster Flash. We made sure that everything that happened in the stadium worked smoothly and looked good – and that it also came across flawlessly on the screens.
